Dedicated Follower of Fashion

Pavement Princess: A Sweeping Absence

Wowzers.

This is the longest I have ever been without posting in the whole history of this blog! Nuts! Being that it's only been ten days (but feels like a life time) it's not really that horrendous. But so much has happened in that time!

• London trade shows
• London Calling
• Blog turned three years old
• London Fashion Week
• Got majorly sick....

Yes - I missed my blogs three year anniversary - some people have parties - I was busy working towards a big one (and drinking too much cider ;)

Anyway - this is what I wore to the Margin Tradeshow - day three of my London shenanigans. Please 'scuse the bloated face - not sure if it was the jet lag, the fact I ate too much breakfast and threw up or just the camera that's doing that - but it ain't pretty...!

The dress, however, is - I picked this beaut up from ASOS and paired it with a Forever 21 belt, Target tights, Topshop shoes and a Fossil handbag. Fortunately the wind caught at the exact right time and you can see how amazingly full this skirt is. Loves it.

Anyhoo - so much more coverage to come - but ta ta for now!

Kelsi xx

Pavement Princess: Rule Breaker.

I had a total crisis the night before our Blogger Flea Market. I mean not an actual crisis, but one of confidence and wardrobe. 100% a first world problem.

Basically I've gotten, well, fat. It's been a long time coming. When I moved to the US I weighed a measly 130lbs at a whopping 5ft10. Decidedly underweight. Six years later I decided to weigh myself. It's not like I've been in complete denial, obviously I know that I've gotten bigger - I've gone up several dress sizes (4/6 - 10/12) but discovering I weighed 192lbs. Well. The panic set it.

Suddenly nothing looked right and I was honestly disgusted with myself and sat down and cried. Now what happens when I cry, is a good purging, it gives me a chance to pull myself together, and once I decided that my clothes weren't making me look fat, but my fat making me look fat, I thought "sod it" and broke about every fashion rule in the book.

- Horizontal stripes √

- Tight Jersey √

- High Neckline √

- Flats with a pencil skirt √

And whilst all these things are certainly not recommended for someone of my girth - my newly found "sod it" status won over - and I felt good, and that was about all that mattered.

Now it would be remiss of me not to mention - it's wonderful to be happy and confident with your size, I'm all for it. But at 192lbs at 5ft 10 - that does make me clinically overweight - and I don't want to be overweight - I don't want to be underweight again either. But I am determined to lose these pounds - swimming, the gym and vegetables are all happening and I'm already down to 188lbs (which of course could just be water weight) so here's to a healthy and hopefully slimmer 2012.

What I Wore: Skirt: Forever 21, Top: Topshop, Necklace: Forever 21, Chucks (with switched out laces) and Raybans.

Edited to include the "before" picture:

Me circa 2006.

Kelsi xx

Pavement Princess: Winter Wedding

Last weekend I had the pleasure of witnessing my dear friend Gina Blancarte marry her dear man, Brian Millard on a very soggy day in San Francisco. Fortunately - just in time for their nuptials, the clouds parted, the rains stopped, and there was a little sunshine. Unfortunately, as evidenced by my terrible posing above, it was still freezing. How the hell am I going to last in London?? L.A has made me soft!

I wore this amazing BCBG Dress - I'd fallen in love with it but was anxious about making the plunge - but the lovely folks at BCBG sent me a gift cetificate for Christmas - so it softened the blow somewhat - and I am very in love with it (and it'll be an awesome addition to my London Fashion Week wardrobe!)

I paired the dress with my vintage faux fur coat, one of my favourite Antoni and Alison purses and a pair of Topshop ballet flats that were an eerily perfect match and a totally unrelated purchase weeks before the dress. I love it when my mind makes subliminal sartorial decisions for me.

Kelsi xx

 

Pavement Princess: Rainy Day in San Francisco

I spent the past weekend in rainy San Francisco, those who have been reading this blog for awhile may know that I adore San Francisco, it was the very first place I ever visited in the US - so will always hold a special place in my heart.

On this particular trip we didn't have much time for sightseeing (or shopping - one of my fave things to do in SF) as we were there for a plethora of reasons, meetings, the lovely Gina Blancarte's wedding and to host a blogger event - all in under three days - crazy times.

I'll have more posts upcoming, but thought we'd start off with an outfit post - it feels like it's been awhile - and I really loved dressing for the cold. This cute plaid dress was a Fancy Treehouse purchase - you can't see too well, but it has a great velvet collar and cute velvet bows. The tights are from Target, the trench coat is Calvin Klein (via TJ Maxx) and the loafers are from Topshop - and completely my new favourites.

I got absolutely soaked on this excursion, through my own doing, after my meeting I went in search of a taxi to head back to the hotel. As I started walking I realised how much I was enjoying doing so, in a city designed for it, and just carried on, meandering my way through the rainy downtown San Francisco night. I even stumbled across an Occupy Wall Street march and enjoyed walking alongside them, in the rain, watching democracy in action.

All together it was quite a magical 40 mins but I'm the kind of person who likes to "get lost" once in a while ;)

Kelsi xx

 

Pavement Princess: A Year of Outfits 2011

A year of outfits. Amusingly enough when I first started this blog - the last thing I ever wanted to do was "be one of those bloggers who just take pictures of themselves" - do you know how much respect I have for those girls now?

So much!

It's pretty tough putting yourself out there on a daily basis, and these girls always look impeccable. It's definitely hard for me to do on a daily basis - mostly because if I'm working at home I rarely even put on pants..But when I am leaving the house (haha) it's a fun way for me to push the envelope and get creative and knowing that I'm sharing an outfit just encourages me to do something fun and I like experimenting.

So there. I'm not just a materialistic narcissist indulging your voyeuristic nature. I'm an artiste.

And here's a year of outfits to prove it ;)

Kelsi x

P.S To get the outfit backstory, or where to buy - click on the month!